Nišan, the Shamaness
Nišan (Manchu Nišan saman; in some manuscripts the heroine is called Teteke) is the shamaness at the centre of the Nišan saman-i bithe, 'The Book of the Nišan Shaman' - the best-known work of Manchu literature and the fullest narrative of Manchu shamanic practice. A young widow living with her mother-in-law, she is summoned when the only son of the rich man Baldu Bayan dies; drumming herself into trance she crosses to the land of the dead, outwits the underworld king Ilmun Han and his servant Monggoldai Nakcu, learns from the divine grandmother Omosi-mama that she had been ordained to her calling, and bears the boy's soul back to restore him to life. The tale survives in several Manchu manuscripts recorded from oral tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with versions also among the Daur, Evenk and Nanai. Classified as a mortal (a human shamaness) rather than a deity.
Domains
- shamanism and soul retrieval
- underworld journey
Powers
- to journey to the underworld in trance and bring back the soul of the dead
- to summon her helping spirits with drum and incantation
Epithets
- Nišan samanGiovanni Stary, Three Unedited Manuscripts of the Manchu Epic Tale 'Nišan saman-i bithe' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985) (secondary)
Relations
- enemy: Ilmun Han, Lord of the UnderworldNišan descends into the realm of Ilmun Han, the king of the dead, and against his will and that of his servant Monggoldai Nakcu carries the boy's soul back to the living, defying the lord of the underworld.Margaret Nowak and Stephen W. Durrant, The Tale of the Nišan Shamaness: A Manchu Folk Epic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977) (secondary)
- subordinate to: Omosi-mama, the Divine GrandmotherOn her underworld journey Nišan comes to the dwelling of the divine grandmother Omosi-mama, who reveals that it was she who had ordained Nišan to become a great shaman; the goddess is thus Nišan's heavenly patron.Stephen W. Durrant, 'The Nišan Shaman Caught in Cultural Contradiction', Signs 5, no. 2 (Winter 1979): 338-347 (secondary)
Sources
- Nišan (also called Teteke) is the shamaness of the Manchu epic Nišan saman-i bithe, who journeys to the underworld and brings back the soul of a dead youth to restore him to life.: Margaret Nowak and Stephen W. Durrant, The Tale of the Nišan Shamaness: A Manchu Folk Epic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977) (secondary); Giovanni Stary, Three Unedited Manuscripts of the Manchu Epic Tale 'Nišan saman-i bithe' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1985) (secondary)